NEW YORK >> The Clippers had just won the biggest game in franchise history in amazing fashion, a limping Chris Paul hitting a miracle shot over Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs to win Game 7 of last season’s first-round series.

And as the team gathered for their next workout, which happened to be at the Toyota Center in Houston, players, coaches and staff were ready to crow.

See, a sheet listing all the local and national experts who picked the Spurs to advance past the Clippers had been circulated throughout the locker room. And, after dispatching San Antonio, it was time for “told you so’s.”

A blown 3-1 lead, a disaster of a fourth quarter in Game 6 and a flat performance in Game 7 later, those predictions didn’t matter all that much.

The lesson, and it’s one Doc Rivers is never shy about pointing out, is that there’s one goal, one finish line — an NBA title. All other accomplishments are merely checkpoints.

It’s a lesson, we now know, that hasn’t 100 percent stuck.

After the Clippers blew an 18-point second-half lead before losing in double overtime to a much-less talented Brooklyn Nets team Tuesday night, Rivers and his players admitted a difficult truth — that this team hasn’t accomplished anything because they haven’t accomplished the only thing.

“I think we were smelling ourselves a little bit. We haven’t done (expletive). Nothing,” Clipper center DeAndre Jordan said. “We were, what, No. 1 in the West for a couple weeks? That don’t mean nothing. At all. I feel like we took that for granted and felt like we were a lot better than we really are.”

The fog of a losing streak might have the Clippers thinking they’re worse than they actually are too. They’re certainly capable of playing great basketball — they did in Brooklyn for a stretch — but they’re also capable of letting up and soaking in their success.

That attitude, Rivers said, appeared for the first time this year on Tuesday, with the Clippers abandoning all the things that built them a big lead, opening the door for the Nets to push through.

“Tonight we got good all of a sudden. We were walking around like we’ve done something. And, that bothers me because we’ve done crap. We haven’t done crap,” he said. “And, for us to walk around against a team, to me, that’s playing their hearts out every night to just win one game, for us to walk around like we’ve done something, it bothers me on a basketball level.

“I didn’t like it. I didn’t want us to lose. But, I’m all right with it, honestly, because I think you deserve it when you do that.”

They’ve done it before. Heck, they’ve done it before in Brooklyn.

Last season, the Clippers nearly blew an 18-point fourth-quarter lead against the Nets, holding on for a win. The year before that, they led by nine points with less than two minutes and then lost.

“Clearly, it’s something,” J.J. Redick said.

Thursday, the Clippers play the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers, a team that debunked its town’s supposed cursed history by coming back from a 3-1 deficit against the greatest regular season team in NBA history.

Thursday, the Clippers get the chance to re-show everyone, not only that they’re on the same level as the defending champs, that they’re up for a big challenge – regardless of the opponent.

“The last two years we’ve been absolutely destroyed in Cleveland,” Redick said. “I think we absolutely have to be sharp to have a chance to compete.”

Added Jamal Crawford: “We just need to get a win. Period.”

The Clippers probably shouldn’t have needed to be reminded of how quickly success can become failure, about how swiftly promise can turn to despair. This is the place, where in the past, ACL’s snapped like dry pasta, where ownership got caught on tape saying horrible things, where star players get injured in succession in playoff games.

The crazy look on Rivers’ face after getting ejected Tuesday night is meme worthy, but the one on his face postgame and the disappointment in his voice was more revealing.

“Humility and respect — you’ve got to have it,” he said.

The Clippers aren’t as perfect as we thought they were after a near-perfect start. They’ve had no choice but to recognize it. The grind of the road, of the schedule, has worn the sheen away from their historic start.

“We took that for granted and felt like we were a lot better than we really are,” Jordan said of their success. “We’ve got to continue to get better and have respect for the game. Then, it’ll treat you right.”